Coffee With Jim

There are places where the American story is layered like the pages of a treasured family album. As the pages turn one photograph leads to another. A picture of a building reveals an unexpected connection. And photos of a seemingly ordinary street becomes the setting for an extraordinary story. Jackson, Michigan, is one of those places.

Today, the name Jackson might not immediately come to mind when discussing the origins of the amusement park or the American automobile industry. Detroit claims the title of Motor City. Flint, Lansing, Kalamazoo, and a handful of other Michigan communities also wrote important chapters in that story.

But there was a time when Jackson, Michigan was a serious contender for the crown. And there was once a time when Jackson was a destination for thrill seekers.

On this episode of Coffee With Jim, we turn back time to an era of innovation, transition and opportunity in the heartland. 

There was a time when a woman climbing aboard a motorcycle and setting off across America was considered scandalous. Crossing the country alone? Absolutely outrageous. And suggesting that women might be capable of serving their country as motorcycle dispatch riders? Well, that was simply beyond the imagination of some gentlemen in positions of authority.

Two wheel adventures and the women who dared to ride in the first decades of the 20th century. The story of the Van Buren sisters, Bessie Stringfield, and Effie Hotchkiss are more than just a tale of road trip adventure. These are exciting and inspiring chapters in the American story. 

Stories such as those of Augusta and Adeline Van Buren and Bessie Stringfield are wonderful examples of why I started sharing America’s story and inspiring road trips back in 1990. At Jim Hinckley’s America, we believe history should be more than a collection of dates, names, and dusty paragraphs in a textbook.

History should be fascinating. It should be relevant. It should make us think, encourage us to explore, and inspire us to discover the people and places that helped shape this remarkable country. 

Route 66 ghost towns, one in Arizona and one in the Texas Panhandle. One was a mining boom town that has been resurrected as a caricature of the Old West on Route 66 in the Black Mountains of Arizona. The other was once a prosperous farming community that was nearly erased by the elements.

In the first half of the program we visit with Leanne Toohey, curator of the Oatman Tailings of Time History Facebook group. Leanne works tirelessly to unravel the complicated story of Oatman, and to separate fact from fiction. Did Clark Gable and Carol Lombard really spend their wedding night at the Durlin Hotel?

Blair and Blanca Shaeffer, guests on the March 16, 2025 episode of Coffee With Jim, join us to share the latest discoveries made during their quest to unravel the history of Jericho. They will also provide updates on the preservation work in this Panhandle ghost town, as well as the Friends of the Jericho Legacy Foundation, the upcoming Panhandle Gives initiative and the Jericho 1000 project.

www.thepanhandlegives.org/organization/Jericho-Legacy-Foundation

www.thejerichogap.com/preservation

Road trips, epic road trips, and road trips that are one for the books. Before she became known as Miss Manners, New York City socialite Emily Post embarked on a coast to coast adventure that she chronicled in a best selling book - By Motor To The Golden Gate. 

On this episode of Coffee With Jim our series about pioneers in petticoats continues with the story of Emily Post's epic road trip in 1915. Coming soon, the story of Bessie Stringfield, a road trip pioneer that lived a life of advenutre, and the Van Buren sisters. 

Route 66 and the story of Billy the Kid, a direct connection. A search for delicious pie. Road trips and road trip disasters. Traveling companions good and bad. Chasing childhood dreams. The wisdom that comes with age, and retaining a zest for life.

A free range conversation with acclaimed author, artist, and speaker Bob Boze Bell of True West Magazine is never predictable. But it is always smile inducing and road trip inspiring.

True West Magazine - www.truewestmagazine.com

Bob Boze Bell - www.bozebell.com

Route 66 in Kansas, less than 15 miles from border to border. Colorful characters, historic mining towns, a one of a kind picturesque bridge, roadside giants, a century old general store, miles of smiles and even a Civil War battlefield. Be prepared to be surprised during this road trip inspiring conversation with Phillip Vogel, President Kansas Route 66 Association.

Join the conversation. Invite your friends. Jim Hinckley's America is a shared adventure!,

It was truly an epic and historic adventure. Effie Hotchkiss, her mother, a Harley Davidson with sidecar, and a coast to coast trip and back again - in 1915.  “I got a lot of non-family discouragement,” Effie recalled in her memoir. “Decent roads would be non-existent for most of the way; there would be deserts to cross, high mountains to climb, lack of water, no repair shop, no this and no that. Some things there would be, such as wild animals, wilder Indians, probably floods, maybe cyclones and other offhand acts of God; until it began to sound so interesting I would not have missed it for the world.”

On this episode of Coffee With Jim, our series about pioneering and adventuresome women at the dawn of the great American road trip continues. Sharing America's story, Inspiring road trips. It's what we do at Jim Hinckley's America. 

Epic road trips and fearless women were major new stories in the first decades of the 20th century. Often they were also at the center of promotional and marketing campaigns.

Alice Huyler Ramsey was a young New Jersey motorist and socialite who drove across the continent in 1909. Then there was Effie Hotchkiss, who in 1915 rode a motorcycle from New York to California and back with her mother in the sidecar. They were the first women to ride a motorcycle from coast to coast. And Emily Post, the future authority on etiquette, wrote a book, By Motor To The Golden Gate, about her epic 1915 transcontinental odyssey to California.

At Jim Hinckley’s America we tell people where to go and encourage people to discov er America with road trips. Alice Ramsey illustrates the importance of road trips, as well as unique chapters in the history of road trips.

Next week our series about pioneering women and the dawning of the great American road trip continues with the story of Effie Hotchkiss, the first women to ride a motorcycle from coast to coast.

Alice Huyler Ramsey was a young New Jersey motorist who drove across the continent in 1909. Then there was Effie Hotchkiss, who in 1915 rode a motorcycle from New York to California and back with her mother in the sidecar. And Emily Post, the future authority on etiquette, wrote a book, By Motor To The Golden Gate, about her epic 1915 transcontinental odyssey.

At Jim Hinckley’s America we believe that the best way to understand America is with a road trip. So, for us Alice Ramsey is a role model, an example of why inspiring road trips is so very important to ensuring that the American story continues into the Route 66 bicentennial and beyond.

Next week our series about pioneering women and the dawning of the great American road trip continues with the story of Effie Hotchkiss, the first women to ride a motorcycle from coast to coast. 

Route 66 relics lost and found. A Guide Book to Highway 66 by Jack Rittenhouse was published in 1946. That little guide book that would fit into a pocket transformed a Michigan factory workers life in the 21st century.

Scott Sheehan has spent more than a decade locating and documenting the motels, campgrounds, garages, and service stations listed in Rittenhouse's book. Those road trip adventures inspired Scott to pen a book. And they led to friendships that spanned the globe.

On today's episode of Coffee With Jim it's road trip inspiration, a Route 66 adventure, and a conversation about the magic that is the great Amerian road trip.

If you would like to know more about publisher and adventurer Jack Rittenhouse, he was the subject of the August 16, 2026 episode of Coffee With Jim. Our guest on that program was David Farmer, author of the new book, Jack Rittenhouse: A Western Literary Life piblished by University of New Mexico Press.